When I was younger, I was somewhat of an idealist. I guess I'm a little bit more of a realist now. I think there's a lot that can be done to make the world a better place, but it's more about choosing your battles.
The United States, after having risen to heights of courage and idealism in its entry and prosecution of the war, has gone to the other extreme in the making of peace. For taking this course history will probably be even less sparing of us than our present-day critics.
The romantic idealism of my youth has been replaced with realism and hard work at what I love.
If you see a whole thing - it seems that it's always beautiful. Planets, lives... But up close a world's all dirt and rocks. And day to day, life's a hard job, you get tired, you lose the pattern.
There is an inevitable divergence between the world as it is and the world as men perceive it.
Perhaps women have always been in closer contact with reality than men: it would seem to be the just recompense for being deprived of idealism.
Idealism leads to realism if it is strictly thought out.
Sooner or later, many idealists transform themselves into disheartened realists who mistakenly believe that giving up is the same thing as being realistic.
